Pubdate: Thu, 10 Apr 2014
Source: Taranaki Daily News (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2014 Fairfax New Zealand Limited
Contact:  http://www.thedailynews.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1056

THIS TIME THE LAW REALLY IS AN ASS

LAWS and the legislation that enables them are key points to building 
and sustaining a safe, reasonable society. But just as important than 
the laws themselves is the level of confidence we place in them. 
Without that confidence people will ignore the rules or, worse still, 
take the law into their own hands.

One thing that can erode that confidence is criticism and searching 
questions from people charged with enforcing that law. A lot of 
people already think the law can be an ass, but when top-level 
officials come to the same conclusion, then you have some issues.

New Plymouth District councillor and former Taranaki CIB boss Grant 
Coward clearly thinks the law is an ass. He said as much in a 
dramatic stand against synthetic cannabis during Tuesday's meeting of 
the council's policy committee.

Here is a man who fashioned a strong, respectable career fighting the 
bad guys. Few others in the region would know more than Coward about 
criminals, crime and what feeds it.

His job was to enforce the laws created by supposedly greater minds 
in Parliament. So when someone with this firsthand experience of 
humanity's baser instincts stands up to declare that the legislation 
is not good enough, they deserve to be heard.

Especially when that clarion call follows another from a different 
branch of justice just a few days earlier.

Lawyers are notoriously cautious about making statements on anything 
in public, so it was a little surprising, but definitely refreshing, 
to see New Plymouth defence lawyer Paul Keegan also stepping forth to 
decry the legislation.

Like Coward did in his former life, he deals in the present with the 
growing wave of human suffering and misery created by the 
Government's inept response to legal highs.

As Keegan rightly pointed out in his letter to this paper, we now 
have a truly ludicrous situation in which the more dangerous 
synthetic substance is legal while the natural product is outlawed. 
It reads like a Monty Python skit.

Central government's abrogation of its responsibilities through weak 
legislation has further enriched the bank balances of a few morally 
questionable peddlers willing to turn a blind eye to the pain they 
are causing in their communities.

Now they stand to make even more money because demand has not 
lessened but supply has been impacted on by the legislation. Fewer 
retailers are selling more product.

There will be two big losers from this nonsense: firstly the 
communities surrounding these irresponsible retailers. They will pay 
a price in the immediate impact of higher levels of crime, and in 
mental and general health problems.

Secondly, and possibly more importantly, is the impact on our 
confidence in the basic infrastructure of our society  the laws that 
govern our conduct and interaction with others.

We hope, in this election year, that those chasing our support listen 
to those raising their voices and make changes.

The law is an ass.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom